With the imminent release of Thomas Vinterberg’s new version of Thomas Hardy’s classic tale Studio Canal have, slightly cruelly, re-released this 1967 version. Cruelly because the new version will do well to come anywhere near close to this fantastic, dark retelling of Hardy’s brutal story. It’s almost a perfect storm, all the actors were at their peak, the director was on top form and even the mistakes he made were covered by his photographer Nicolas Roeg now whatever happened to him?
Many film fans will have already seen this version on various formants, so why fork out your hard-earned to see it on the big screen? Several reasons. It has a harvest festival scene that has been re-inserted after being lost, which adds yet more texture to the story. Roeg has overseen the clean-up job, which reveals he not only has a great eye but also a deep understanding of the look of Hardy’s world. All too often it is portrayed as pretty, but Roeg understood that this is a land that pulls hard on its inhabitants, it can be bleak and unforgiving as well as beautiful. He also understands how to shoot its characters Oak, poor man, is never seen in anything other than sludge brown with a matching background. It’s as if he could throw himself into the sea and still come out looking beige. The sequence when his dog virtually destroys his livelihood in a moment of madness is stunningly shot and soul-destroyingly sad in equal measure.
But the main reason for seeing it again is simply because it is just so damn good. Christie is the stubborn Bathsheba, cursed with a beauty that attracts attention from three suitors. Oak (Bates) is the simple shepherd who offers her a solid, if unexciting life on his farm, while Boldwood (Finch) can offer her far more as the owner of a fine piece of adjoining property, but there may be a reason he has never married before. Into this mix comes Stamp as Sergeant Troy, a force of nature, dashingly handsome and with many a dark secret who sweeps Bathsheba off her feet.
Stamp and Christie may not be in retrospect the finest actors ever to have walked this land but here they are just perfect and understand their roles to a tee. Stamp’s seduction of Bathsheba with a demonstration of his sword skills yet, metaphor alert is one of the most memorable sequences in British cinema history, a whirring blur of movement, colour and sound that matches Hardy’s equally stunning prose in the book. Here’s a secret though this whole sequence, perhaps 10 minutes in length, was not directed by Schlesinger, who apparently couldn’t stand Stamp. Instead Roeg took Stamp and Christie off at the end of a day’s shooting to shoot the sequence, and when Schlesinger saw it he had no choice but to include it in his film.
The supporting roles are equally important and yet again they are spot-on. Troy, the feckless, flaky show-off who appears to have won the battle for Bathsheba, has a dark secret, his love for the tragic, brittle Fanny (Prunella Ransome), and when she reappears in his life the results are almost unbearably moving. It’s a tribute to Schlesinger that Hardy’s world can be cruel in the extreme, yet there is never a moment when the story isn’t totally gripping. As for that new version, all I can say is best of luck to everyone involved you’ll need it.
Overall verdict: Seminal 1960s slice of British cinema which tells Hardy’s superb tale with a precision and passion rarely matched since. Unmissable, and thoroughly enjoyable.
Reviewer: Mike Martin